WO10105628 discloses a method for planning, visualizing, and/or optimizing dental restoration on at least a part of the pre-prepared teeth of a patient, wherein said method comprises the steps of:                providing at least one 3D digital model of at least a part of the pre-prepared teeth;        designing at least one dental restoration CAD model based on the 3D digital model of at least a part of the pre-prepared teeth;        providing at least one 3D digital model of at least a part of the prepared teeth, where the prepared teeth are provided by preparing the pre-prepared teeth by dental restorative work, at least partly based on the dental restoration CAD model; and        aligning the 3D models of the pre-prepared and the prepared teeth.        
WO09146164A discloses a method of creating a 3-D anatomic digital model for determining a desired location for placing at least one dental implant in a patient's mouth. The method comprises the act of obtaining a first dataset associated with hard tissue of the patient's mouth. The method further comprises the act of obtaining a second dataset associated with soft tissue of the patient's mouth. The method further comprises the act of combining the first dataset and the second dataset to create a detailed structure of hard tissue and soft tissue having variable dimensions over the hard tissue.
US2004081938A discloses that a computer obtains a digital model of a patient's dentition, including a dental model representing the patient's teeth at a set of initial positions and a gingival model representing gum tissue surrounding the teeth. The computer then derives from the digital model an expected deformation of the gum tissue as the teeth move from the initial positions to another set of positions.
It remains a problem to provide improved planning and virtual designing of a dental component, such as a restoration, a temporary restoration or a diagnostic wax-up, for a patient.